Radio Atlantic, IA – AM 1220

While June rainfall & temps may have been around “average,” that’s far from the full story

July 2nd, 2013 by Ric Hanson

After many months of drought followed by Iowa’s wettest spring on record, the month of June wrapped up as one of the more “normal” months we’ve had in some time. State climatologist Harry Hillaker says the past month saw both temperatures and precipitation that were nearly dead on. Rainfall averaged about 5″ for the month and 5.02″ is normal for June, while temperatures were only about a half-degree cooler than normal. While the precipitation may have balanced out statewide as being near-average, Hillaker says the amount of rainfall some areas of Iowa received during the month was anything but common.

Northeastern parts of Iowa saw a lot of rain and flooding while one community in Allamakee County had almost 14″ of rain during June. That’s a far cry from many parts of southeast Iowa and far western Iowa, some areas of which only got 2″ of rain during the month, less than half the norm. Likewise, while temperatures averaged out to being essentially normal for June, the mercury was up and down all during the month.

June started off very cool with the first 10 days of the month all below-normal while much of the rest of the month was abnormally warm. Temperature extremes during the month ranged from 94-degrees in Sioux City on June 21st down to only 37-degrees on June 3rd in Elkader, one of the coldest June readings in Iowa in many years. As for the month ahead, Hillaker says Iowa could be in for near-normal temperatures and precipitation during July. High temperatures this week will be in the 70s and 80s. Last year at this time, highs soared in the 90s across the state in what was the beginning of one of the hottest Julys in Iowa history.

The month of June was slightly wetter and cooler than normal, here in Atlantic. According to weather data compiled here at the KJAN studios (The official National Weather Service reporting site for Atlantic), rainfall for the month amounted to 5.03-inches, which was just .05″ (five one-hundredths of an inch) above the average of 4.98″.

The average high temperature for the month was 80 (normal average is 83), and the average low was 56 (normally, 59). Precipitation thus far this year (from January through June, including melted snowfall), amounts to 18.68″ (normal precip. for the period is 16.91″).